Raising Adults

  I read a blogpost the other day where someone mentioned that we are raising our kids to be adults. I know that seems obvious, but it struck a chord with me. There is an end goal. We need our children to not just sit back and enjoy childhood or whine there way through it. We need to make them into amazing leaders, mother, brothers, fathers, sisters, cousins, friends, teachers, and the list goes on.

  Ty and I talked tonight about Emree and  how we want to instill more confidence in her. Confidence that she is loved that she is a daughter of God, that she can do amazing things, that she can help others. I want a child who looks outward and sees the good in others and the good in herself.

 In that same blog post it talked about hugging your children until they let go. I need to do that more for Jesse. I am always the first to let go and he just needs the extra love. It makes him feel safe and secure. It helps his day go better. He is my little snuggler and no matter how tall he gets I think he will always be.

Alligators, Butterflies, and Screaming

  Let me start off by saying that I love hearing what people have to say about things going on in their lives. I love to hear about their experiences and what they choose to do with their time or lack their of. I sometimes wonder if I have much to add, but to be honest I need to write it down for me. I use to be a fantastic journal writer. Writer of journals... not sure how I should even put that. But somewhere between becoming a sleep deprived mom who can't keep up with all the dishes and pillows on the floor and kid number three (no I have four) I stopped journaling. I use to think I was a fantastic writer too, but I tend to have poor grammar and the worst spelling (thank you spell check) and I no longer have the time to double check and double check everything I write. Sometimes that makes me think I shouldn't write it. Today I don't think that is true. I should write because I want to and you can read if you want to. Or not at all. This is really for me anyways. So, I can freeze this moment in my life. Each day I look at my kids and I don't want to forget how happy they make me and how funny they are. They are each so cute and so frustrating in their own ways. My oldest went to a Butterfly Garden today. I thought there would be butterflies, but apparently they are only there in March and April. She loves to tell us about everything she is learning and finds school exciting and fascinating. She loves fractions and stories. She loves to color - especially pictures of bees. She has also recently had to tell on a friend for looking up pornography at school and for using foul language. I wish she didn't have to learn so much in first grade. Jesse is my crazy happy kid who never and I mean never stops making noise. He make noise in between his noises...  Today we went to an Alligator Sanctuary. He loved to looks at the animals and to feed them and to play with his friends and to make noise the entire time. I don't think I saw him once with out a huge smile on his face. Even while his brother Brighton was hitting him. Brighton is two and crazy and loud and athletic. He could chuck the biscuits to feed the alligators right into the water (the other two year olds had a hard time getting it over the fence), but he gets angry easily. He yells when he is mad these days and he hits all the time. We are trying to enforce time out. I want to teach him to be kind. He does have a few kind bones hidden down in there. Baby Reid is so easy and adorable and smiley. He likes to get up every three hours still in the night, but he is such a pleasure all day. He slept through all of the Alligators, but he sure looked cute doing it. I can't believe he is almost three months old. I read a blog about Dads today and it talked about how Dads speak a different language than moms and we have to try not to change what they say because kids need us both for different reasons. This is so true. Ty came with us today and my boys just eat him up when he is around. They love me, I am their mom, but I am always here. They need their Dad time and I am so grateful Ty gave that time to them. Yes, today we didn't see any butterflies, saw lots of alligators and heard lots of screaming, but it was a good day. I can say that now because all of my littles are tucked into bed and I look at them and I want to freeze them in this moment.